CAST:

Ryan Barton-Grimley, or RBG as his most distinguished colleagues refer to him, was born in Harare Zimbabwe in the mid-1970's. After battling blood-thirsty lions and mad wilder-beasts for just shy of a decade, he moved to the US of A with his family and proceeded to do time at various public and private institutions, almost getting nine degrees and finally graduating from UCLA with a prestigious and meaningful liberal arts degree. This astounding feat of academic excellence led to a starring role in the acclaimed indie feature film TROPIX opposite Danielle Bisutti and supporting roles on CRIMINAL MINDS and the Fox Movie of the Week, THE PRICE OF LOVE. Burned out on all the fame and fortune, RBG decided to slide further down the rabbit hole by writing and directing the internationally acclaimed home invasion thriller... THE TRUTHstarring John Heard, Brendan Sexton III, and Daniel Baldwin in 2010. This stunning piece of independent cinema was distributed worldwide, much to the chagrin of film critics everywhere and was one of the most pirated films on the Internet in the three weeks preceding its release. RBG is currently starring in and producing Douglas Mueller's debut feature film... REPATRIATIONas well as, directing and starring in his second and third feature films... ELIJAH'S ASHES, the award winning road comedy about brotherly love and homophobia, and...HAWK & REV: VAMPIRE SLAYERS a slacker-horror-comedy about "kicking lots of vampire ass and taking lots of vampire names!" Lastly... keep an eye out for RBG performing improv at various dark and shady theaters around town including UCB, Groundlings and now The Nerdist. For more info: ryanbartongrimley.com

Jeremy is an actor and filmmaker based out of Chicago where he has has performed with theatre companies across the city, including the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Trap Door Theatre, and The Goodman. Regionally, he's performed in Montana, Colorado, Indiana, California, and Washington D.C. As a filmmaker, he's acted in, directed, or produced several projects, most notably playing the lead in Prairie Love, an official selection of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. He is currently the Artistic Director of Oracle Film with the non-profitOracle Productions, which brings free film and theatre programs to the Chicago community.

Jes is thrilled to work with RBG films on Repatriation and would like to thank Jeremy, Doug and Ryan for the opportunity. On film, she has primarily worked with Untrademarked Productions based out of Nashville Tennessee. Their first feature, Worm, was just recently accepted into the Nashville Film Festival and will premier there in April 2013. Previous shorts with Untrademarked Productions include: Worm: the short, the 2011 Nashville 48 hour Film Festival Winner and Refrigerate After Opening, the 2010 International 48 Hour Film Festival Audience Choice Winner and Best Ensemble Winner. She can also be seen in A Spoonful of Zanny, a short film that is part of The Many Monsters Of Sadness: a film by Motke Dapp, a Fight with Forks Production. Jes is also an editor and production coordinator and is currently working on the short film Embalmer's Grey, an all female production team lead by Jennifer Bonior of Untrademarked Productions. Jes received her training at Purdue University and has had the pleasure of working on shows in Nashville and Chicago including: Road (Claire/Dor) with Ka-Tet Theatre Ensemble, The Fantasticks (The Mute) with Promethean Theatre Ensemble, The Carnival of Curiosities (Alminari) at Navy Pier, Trojan Women (Cassandra) with Act One Theatre and Urinetown: The Musical (Little Becky Two Shoes) at The Boiler Room Theatre. For more info: jesmercer.com

Cora Vander Broek is an actor based out of Chicago. Her film work includes the independent feature Where We Started currently making the festival circuit. She is currently working on an independent feature with Passenger Productions, due to wrap this summer. She has been seen on NBC's Chicago Fire and various commercials. Her recent theatre credits include Dr. Jekyll & Mr Hyde (Indiana Repertory Theatre); In The Next Room or The Vibrator Play (Actors Theatre of Louisville and Milwaukee Repertory Theatre); All My Sons (TimeLine Theatre); Doubt and A Christmas Carol (Indiana Repertory Theatre). Cora also understudied and performed the lead role in Sarah Ruhl’s Dead Man’s Cell Phone at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Her writing has been featured in Serendipity Theatre’s 2ndStory series. Cora has received an After Dark Award (Actress in a Principal Role), a Jeff Citation Nomination (Actress in a Supporting Role) and has been featured in the Chicago Tribune as “One of the top five actors to watch now.” Cora is a proud member of AEA and is represented by Chicago’s Big Mouth Talent. For more info: coravanderbroek.com

A Chicago born actor, painter, writer, and producer, Jonathen devotes the majority of his time to Odradek Theatre as co-founder and Executive Director. His recent theatre credits include Odradek's Paradise Park (actor, writer, producer), Pretty, Smart, Poetic (producer), and Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead (actor and producer). On camera, Jonathen has acted in Snarling Beast Film's feature House of Stevens (post-production), and their shorter works Delirium, Sleeper, and In the Woods. For more info: odradektheatre.com

Antonio Brunetti is an actor, known for Umami (2017), The Art of the Deal (2016) and Repatriation (2017). Antonio Brunetti proudly became a Trap Door company member with Chaste in the spring of 2010. Other Trap Door credits: Hamletmachine, A staged reading of Hilda for IVP, The Word Progress On My Mother’s Lips Doesn’t Ring True, and They Are Dying Out. Other Chicago credits include Sketchbook 11 and 1001 with Collaboraction, where he is also a company member; Anung’s First American Christmas with Vitalist Theatre; Where Did Everybody Go? with Dramatis Personae; Crave with Candentia Theatre (also performed at the Minnesota Fringe Festival). He returned to Chicago in 2008, after a few years working in Europe. Credits there include Oleanna and The Glass Menagerie with Altesschauspielhaus in Stuttgart, Germany; Fool For Love at the 100 Grad Theatre Festival in Berlin, Germany; Macbeth in Stuttgart and Friedriechshafen, Germany; The Graduate at the Stuttgart Theatre Center and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Piedescalso Café in Dublin, Ireland. He trained in Germany under the tutelage of Julian Knab, a pupil of Jerzy Grotowski. Antonio was born, raised and educated in Chicago.

A graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University, James is a company member of The Broken Compass theater ensemble where he originated the character of Ben in The Bloody Romantic and performed the role of Elliot in the North American premiere of Philip Ridley’s Mercury Fur (Chicago Tribune Best of Year). Other credits include: Saints In Strange Places (Appetite Theatre), Witch Switch (A 12 Steps Program), Bomber Wing (Running With Scissors), Oscar Wilde, Jack The Ripper and The Elephant Man Have A Tea Party (Mary-Arrchie’s Abbie Hoffman festival), The Moonshiner (Jackalope Theatre), In the Jungle of Cities (Ka-Tet Theatre), and Woyzeck (Oracle Theatre). On camera, James has appeared in various commercials (Long John Silver’s, NFL Network, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Cincinnati Bell, Museum of Science and Industry), MTV’s Underemployed, the Lionsgate feature film The Lucky Ones, the independant film Roundabout American, and in Breakwall Pictures’ short film, Thanks Mom, which he also co-directed. For more info: Grossman & Jack Talent

Rorycouldn't be more thrilled to be part of Repatriation. His film work ranges from playing Crazy Homeless Man in the short film Turkish Coffee to Crazed Man (also homeless) in the short film The Sixth Bullet. He also appeared bobbing his head to "Baby I Love Your Way" in High Fidelity to, uh, walking in The Lake House. For four years, Rory was a co-host and writer on both the television and radio iterations of DVD Geeks. He has been an active actor on the Chicago stage, working with such companies as A Red Orchid Theatre, Collaboraction, Curious Theatre Branch, Prop Thtr, The Society of Young Superheroes, Ka-Tet Theatre, Grippo Productions, and Oracle Theatre (where he is also a company member). As a playwright, his produced works include Dislocation to the Left, A Babel Fish for Charlie Brown's Mom, The Belle of Austin, Daniel Day-Lewis and the Big Potatas, Civil Rights Legs, and Samuel Beckett, Andre the Giant, and the Crickets. Rory holds a BA in Theatre Arts from Marymount Manhattan College, an MFA in Creative Writing from School of the Art Institute, and melds minds both young and old at Harry S.Truman College in Chicago. Thanks to Doug, Jeremy, and Ryan for this awesome opportunity.

Matthew Brumlow is an ensemble member of Chicago’s critically acclaimed American Blues Theater where he has 15 production credits including Tobacco Road, A View from the Bridge, True West, Catch 22, and Oklahoma! A two-time Equity Jeff Award nominee, Matthew’s Chicago credits include Loot and Another Part of the Forest at Writers’ Theatre; Titus Andronicus and Carousel at Court Theatre; Frost Nixon at Timeline Theatre Company; She Stoops To Conquer at Northlight Theatre; Mary Zimmermann’s Eleven Rooms of Proust at Lookingglass and About Face Theatre; The Winning Streak at Appletree Theatre; five productions at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre as well as productions with PROP, 16thStreet Theatre, Organic/Touchstone, Shakespeare on the Green, and Azusa Productions. Matthew also recently covered the roles of Angelo and Lucio in Bob Falls’ production of Measure For Measure at Goodman Theatre. Regional credits include In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play at Actors Theatre of Louisville and Milwaukee Repertory; Nobody Lonesome For Me at Milwaukee Repertory and American Heartland Theatre; Carousel at Long Wharf Theatre; The Borderland at Kansas City Repertory; Lombardi and A Few Good Men at Peninsula Players Theatre; “Stanley” in Montana Repertory Theatre’s national tour of A Streetcar Named Desire; The 39 Steps, A Christmas Carol, and the title role in Hamlet at Indiana Repertory Theatre as well as productions at Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, Door Shakespeare, and Montana Shakespeare in the Parks where he has played the roles of Shylock, Tartuffe, Orlando, and Tybalt. Matthew's portrayal of Hank Williams Sr. in Nobody Lonesome For Me was named one of the top solo shows of 2011 by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Matthew can also be seen in the Independent Feature Films Endings, Where We Started, and Doug & Ami.

Paige is a graduate of Denison University with a BFA in Theatre Performance and is a proud ensemble member of Red Tape Theatre Company. Paige has been seen in Tragedy: a tragedy playing the role of Constance, Fran in The Gingerbread House, Ballet Girl in Elephant's Graveyard at Red Tape Theatre and Ruby Wilder in Ruby Wilder at Tympanic Theatre. She can also be seen in the webseries Rob Has to Leave by Elephantville Productions.

John Orantes is an Actor based out of San Francisco California where he attended The American Conservatory Theatre (A.C.T.). In high school John auditioned for the school play in both his junior and senior year. He was casted both years, but sports interfered both years and he never appeared in the final cast. John's final year of high school showed a little light at the end of the tunnel as one of his short films landed in the top three of his class and was screened at a school wide award ceremony. John is known for his improve comedic shorts in which he grew an audience via social media. Repatriation is John's first role in a Feature film. John can also be seen in the upcoming feature film "Don't Shoot! I'm The Guitar Man".

Found hanging off a glacier in Antarctica and raised by an indigenous tribe is NOT how one would describe Ari Schneider’s early life. Rather, he is from Los Angeles, his mother from Buenos Aires and father from the Bronx. He attended school in Santa Monica, did some plays like The Importance of Being Earnest and Comedy of Errors, and learned stuff. Later he was accepted into the Guildford School of Acting in England where he f–ked around a bit and performed in such plays as The Merchant of Venice and Three Sisters. There he received a BA with Honors in acting and musical theatre and was awarded a “Gold with Distinction” from the Royal Academy of Dramatic arts for Stage Combat in use of Broad Sword, Staff and Case of Rapiers. Yup…that’s right. That means he can kick some serious royal ass on stage, but in the “real world” can easily be dominated with a simple kick to the shin or ankle. He currently resides in Los Angeles where you might find him performing at the Second City Theatre, doing thespian bulls–t, living the life of a tortured writer or playing video games. For more info: arischneider.com

Patrick Pankhurst teaches acting for the camera at USC. He spent 25 years working in casting, as well as being an actor for 35 years on stage, in commercials, film and television. Inspired by Daniel Seltzer at Harvard, he went on to study with Peggy Feury And William Traylor in Los Angeles and continues that tradition acting, teaching, and coaching in the L.A. theatre world. He believes the camera is a great teacher and uses it to explore both acting and teaching. For more info: patricksclass.com

John grew up in Lynn County Texas in the same small town as Dan Blocker. His Father worked for the Santa Fe Railroad and his Mother had an in home Day Care Center. He attended two Jr. Colleges and three four year institutions wandering from music to theatre to business administration. He married Margaret Willis in 1972, they have three children and four grand-children. John was employed by the playwright and screenwriter John Patrick from 1973 to 1978 in St. Thomas, U.S.V.I. He has been working in front of the camera and in voice over in the Austin and San Francisco markets since 2003.

Art Roche is an amateur actor living in Dubuque, Iowa. He has portrayed Polonius in “Hamlet” and in “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.” He was Willie in ”The Sunshine Boys” and has portrayed artist Grant Wood and Captain Edward J. Smith of the ill-fated Titanic in one person performances. He is president of Dubuque Fine Arts Players, which runs the world’s oldest one-act play writing contest. In addition he has produced the three winning plays from that contest since 2012. “Repatriation” is his first film role.